Posts authored by Dragonwolf

Assault – Thief to Hero webcomic page 4

Now you know the history behind this comic and how it came to be, both in the original full story in audio format, and as this abbreviated comic adaptation. As far as this iteration goes, there are a lot of things I like about it, and a couple here and there that I don’t. Much like my commentary on the Dragonwolf pages, I will try to explain both sides, and on each individual page to keep things clear.

First off, let me say that Josh Allar is an amazing artist. He has a very simple style that is very clear and concise. I have experimented in coloring this comic, much like I have the Dragonwolf one, and to much better success because of Josh’s style. He doesn’t shy away from backgrounds, and finds ways around it if the panel doesn’t really call for it.

However, on this page, the last panel is one of the few I don’t like as much as I probably should. that tank is at least 8-10 feet tall and full of a liquid that isn’t water. Think bacta tank in The Empire Strikes Back. And with an over-sized alien in it, that glass has got to be thick. The action of Randall striking the glass with that pipe doesn’t look like he could really break it with just the one blow.

But then again, this is a comic book, and who knows how strong that guy really is, or maybe he can find weak points in things, which is how he is able to get into such a high-tech facility unnoticed (it’s not, but you’d have to listen to the audio comic to find out the full story).

Art by Josh Allar
Letters and editing by Jay Goldberg
Written by Timm Gillick

Assault – Thief to Hero Webcomic page 3

A number of years ago now, I placed an ad on a website (don’t remember the name and can’t find it now) as a Comic Writer looking for projects. I was contacted by a man named Jay Goldberg, the very same one who edited and lettered this comic. He was putting together a project called Red-Slime, which was a comic book anthology of stories two to ten pages in length, published monthly as an online web comic. He collected artists from Deviant Art, and writers from various other sources including the one on which I had placed the ad.

He requested stories in comic book format (no prose), judged the style of the story and paired it up with an artist whose style matched the tone and theme of the story. This is how Josh Allar was brought on to draw this story.

I had to send some of my character designs along to make sure that Josh’s images matched my vision for what I had created. Josh really liked the character of the alien in the bottle so much that after he and I discussed some of the back story on this tale, he did a couple sketches of Roju, the alien. Both of them ended up being used by Mr. Goldberg for Red-Slime, the black and white drawing was used for the cover of the issue in which this story appeared, and a color version, similar in theme to Roju coming out of the wreckage of his downed craft, was used as the cover of another issue which nothing I wrote appeared in.

So even though I only contributed to two issues of Red-Slime, a character of mine appeared on the cover of a third issue.

Art by Josh Allar
Letters and editing by Jay Goldberg
Written by Timm Gillick

Assault – Thief to Hero Webcomic page 2

At first I wanted the two guys in the story, Assault and Armor, to have broken into a high-tech lab and steal the plans for a new exo-skeleton suit like Iron Man, but they fought about what to do with it. They ended up splitting the plans in their fight. Assault ended up with all the weaponry, and Armor ended up with all the defensive stuff. That plan still holds true, but extended out a bit when I rewrote this story.

I played around with the ideas until I found one I liked. That there is still the high-tech lab, but instead of them stealing the plans, why not steal the full thing? But how to get that done? I introduced the aliens. Only one appears in this short origin story, but the other alien species is mentioned.

With that happening, the alien crash, recovery of the alien, etc., it made it easier for the technology to be acquired by our thief. The second story in this title, Enmity and Armor, takes it to the next step and his partner finally acquires the defensive suit.

Randall aka Assault, becomes a hero, and the Circus-13 Universe was born, at least in audio comic format, with this story. It has since been expanded upon with a crossover in the second story arc, and the universe grows further with more history in the title Dragonwolf, but no crossover as of yet. Well, in Dragonwolf’s second issue, there is a mention of ATLAS Labs, and a couple characters from the second Assault story, but nothing more than that.

Next I’ll talk about how this particular iteration of this story came about, finally, in comic book form.

Art by Josh Allar
Letters and editing by Jay Goldberg
Written by Timm Gillick

Assault – Thief to Hero Webcomic page 1

This story has a long and sometimes boring backstory as to how it came about. Firstly, the main character started off as something of Iron Man if he had stolen all the technology instead of inventing it himself.

His name came from a list I made at the Washington, Illinois Main Library. I remember it distinctly even though it was almost a quarter century ago. I needed some new superheroes for an upcoming role playing game, and I grabbed a thesaurus as this was well before the internet, and looked up the word “fight.” In the lists of synonyms and antonyms, I found some interesting words, and made a list of the ones I thought would make some good superhero names. Assault was one of them.

The reason I did some character creation that way was I preferred the simpler names for heroes, following the KISS rule: Keep It Simple, Stupid. I also combined some here and there for some team names, and the Circus-13 Universe was born, but it wasn’t called that back then.

At one time I liked the name of Excalibur Comics, and a former friend gave me a small trinket of a sword stuck in a stone which I still have today. Then it became *shudder* Whispering Lion Comics. I still don’t know what made me decide on that name, but I am glad it didn’t last long.

Eventually I had a conversation with someone who mentioned some of my “juggling” abilities with certain storylines and characters and said I belong in a circus. Add to that a recent conversation I had had with another friend about the number 13 and they just fell together.

Ten plus years later and the name is becoming known in certain areas, mostly for < ahref="http://circus13productions.com/wordpress" target="_blank">audio drama, but recently for the comics that actually inspired them.

Art by Josh Allar
Letters and editing by Jay Goldberg
Written by Timm Gillick